The news magazine about Visual Tech

Category Archives: technology

The most seen picture of last night’s Oscars was not neither taken by a Dslr, nor a professional photographer and was not published (at first) in any publication. It was a selfie taken on a Samsung Note 3 by an actor and published on Twitter. If any one needed a confirmation of where photography is heading, last night was a prime example. Relegated to taking full length fashion shots behind barricades, or shooting the stage from a balcony, pro photographers were by far outclassed by…

Photo app EyeEm announcement today that it will be opening an image licensing database made of photos submitted by its users brings an interesting though to the photo tech space. Considered by many as the gentle Instagram’s – its ToS does not attempt a copyright grab- it has managed to carve itself a respectable area in the very crowded space of the phone app with a sharing network. Being a free app, it is now trying to find a revenue model that preserves its photographer/contributor…

How brands use photography on social media should be an indication on how to monetize photography on social media. By now, most of them are fully aware that having a presence on social media is an absolute must. Minimum, the big three, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Since the buzz recently has been strong about Pinterest bringing in the most traffic conversion, although not entirely correct, it has also joined the mix. According to the CMO survey by Duke University companies currently spend 7.4% of their…

by Rey Flemings, co-founder and ceo of Stipple. We’ve never had access to reams of data like we have today – as marketers we should be thrilled. We can measure performance until the cows come home, and at times we do. Unfortunately, it’s made us myopic. Great Data, Wrong Medium We are so blindly focused on using “big data” to increase display advertising performance (by a percentage of two if we’re lucky) that we’ve forgotten a basic consumer truth – consumers don’t like ads. As…

With the limited test release of its new user interface, Twitter is revealing that it is craving to become much more than your 140 characters text app. The obvious reason ? Text lead to poor engagement, photos – and videos – are much, much more attractive. Facebook knows that ( a photo on Facebook attracts 53% more likes than plain text), as well as Pinterest, Instagram and G+. Attracting users with text and a link offer poor results. A photo changes everything. Already Twitter recently…

The next frontier in digital revenue is the yet untapped landscape of the millions of photographs uploaded and shared everyday. Photographs are considered by many to represent more than 75% of the internet real estate, yet no one has yet successfully cracked its full revenue potential. With almost unlimited resources, both technological and financial, it is puzzling to see that even Google has not yet successfully monetized it. It is not for lack of trying. But its strategy, for now, has been more about herding…

If you have been reading this blog, you already know that we strongly believe that the next big disruption to the pro licensing scene is already in your hands. Not so much because everyone has a camera and can potentially shoot ( nothing new here) but rather for its ability to put image buyers and sellers in direct contact around a specific need. The big change here is that instead of being an offer-first marketplace – where stock agencies create a large pool of images in…

Instagram knows more about photography than Getty Images does. Or Corbis. Or Associated press. Or even Shutterstock. In 3 years years, it has aggregated more information about which photograph works better than the combinations of the best photo editors at any photo agency. It is not just Instagram. Flickr does too, although they might not know it yet ( at least they are not showing visible signs of awareness). And Pinterest. And the many, many tech companies whose job it is to help brands monetize…

During this period of the year, like many of us that write about photography, I receive many well wishes from a wide variety of photographers, photo galleries, photo agencies and pretty much anyone involved in the photography business. They all come via email mostly from people I have never communicated with in my life. Under the disguise of wishing me a warm holiday season and a healthy new year, they also act as a not subtitle piece of marketing screaming “look at my work”. I…

I organized a panel at the recent PACA ( the Digital Media Licensing Association) conference around mobile photography and image licensing. I invited 4 companies representative of what is going on in this space, in an effort to show and explain that the next major disruption in the professional image licensing world will come from your mobile phone . Everyone is now fully aware that professional Dslr are going to be replaced by mobile phone cameras. It is just a question of time. Already, this year, there…